Former youth pastor guilty of sexual assault
Wife avoids conviction after multiple charges were laid following church members’ reports
A former Surrey youth pastor has been found guilty of one count of sexual assault, while his wife was found not guilty of all charges.
Samuel Emerson, 36, and his wife Madelaine, 39, were first charged in 2017 with a multitude of sex offences, after young members of their church went to police. The couple both pleaded not guilty, with their trial starting earlier this year.
On Wednesday, a provincial court judge found Samuel Emerson not guilty on all but one charge of sexual assault, while his wife was found not guilty on all charges, according to the Surrey court registry.
Until his arrest in 2017, Emerson had been serving as a pastor at Cloverdale Christian Fellowship Church.
After the couple’s arrest, attendance at the church plummeted, with three-quarters of the church’s membership leaving.
Emerson’s father Randy serves as the non-denominational church’s senior pastor, and had taken interim custody of his son’s five children.
“That’s what makes it so hard. These are all people that we loved and had as part of our lives, and I would love to be able to talk to them and bring some health to their lives again, if I could,” Randy Emerson said in a 2017 interview with Postmedia News about those who came forward.
These are all people that we loved and had as part of our lives, and I would love to be able to talk to them.
A Vancouver Island Bible camp severed ties with Samuel Emerson after the charges were announced. He had served as a director of the Cowichan River Bible Camp.